The Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition at the annual Central PA Festival of the Arts is consistently ranked as one of the top outdoor fine art and fine craft shows in the country. This event brings artists and craftspeople from across the nation to State College, PA. More than three hundred exhibitors offer a wide variety of objects for sale including baskets, ceramics, jewelry, fiber, painting, mixed media, photography, sculpture and wearable art.

As part of the Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition’s jury process, almost 1,000 artists from the United States and several foreign countries submitted digital images of their work to be juried. Last February, Four other jurors and myself reviewed the images, with the artists receiving the highest scores were accepted into the Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition. While I have exhibited at the CPFA nearly every year since 1996, this year it was my honor to serve as a juror. My fellow jurors were:

Nancy Burch Brassington grew up in a farming community in northern Virginia where life centered around work on the farm, 4-H Club, and the rural Methodist church. She left the farm for the bright lights of Fredericksburg, earning an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Mary Washington University. After earning two degrees in painting and drawing from Penn State, she found her voice as a painter whose work reflects her rural roots. Today she has a twenty-five year exhibition record and is currently is represented by the Agora Gallery in New York City.

Cappy Counard makes jewelry and small containers that draw from her interest in architecture, the structural geometry found in nature, and those unexpected moments of beauty that make us stop and pay attention. In addition to her studio work, she is a professor in the Metals/Jewelry program at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania where she has been a professor since 1999. She has exhibited, lectured and demonstrated extensively throughout the United States

An assistant professor of art at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, Pat Howard teaches photography and digital art. Prior to her engagement at Juniata, she taught drawing and photography for the School of Visual Arts at Penn State, including study abroad programs in Mexico and Ireland. For many years she was a rostered artist with the Arts in Education residency program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, teaching photography workshops in K-12 schools throughout central Pennsylvania.

Jordan McDonald is currently a resident artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia and is teaches ceramics at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. He received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York. McDonald utilizes a wide array of techniques and materials in his work – primarily pots that are rooted in the history of ceramics.

For me, jurying the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts was a true privilege. Shaking hands and talking with over 300 artists, seeing their work up close, and learning about their process was an amazing experience that was both gratifying and inspirational. I cannot put into words how moved I was by many of these artists and craftsmen upon hearing how passionate they were about the work they create. I walked away from this experience a more invigorated artist, and a bit more appreciative of the work and creative energy put fourth by my fellow artists. My deepest thanks to Rick Bryant, Carol Baney, Pam Lausch, and the entire CPFA staff. It was a wonderful experience! And a special thanks to my wonderful wife and partner, Chris, who supports me when I say “I agreed to be a juror!”

Here is a just a taste of the art and artists at the CPFA, via my iPhone: